Hiker's quick thinking saves family from mountain lion

April 1, 2014

Updated April 3, 2014 8:28 a.m.

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Joe Fleischaker, of Tustin looks on as Madison Smith of Mission Viejo and her son Jackson, 5, stand on a hiking trail near where a mountain lion stalked them at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. Fleischaker helped ward the animal off with a large stick he was carrying. EUGENE GARCIA,, EUGENE GARCIA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Madison Smith of Mission Viejo demonstrates how a mountain lion shifted back and forth and looked at her while stalking her and her two small children at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. Authorities later shot and killed the aggressive animal. EUGENE GARCIA, EUGENE GARCIA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Joe Fleischaker of Tustin looks on as Madison Smith of Mission Viejo demonstrates how a mountain lion stalked her and her two small children at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. Fleischaker helped ward the animal off with a large stick he was carrying. EUGENE GARCIA,, EUGENE GARCIA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Joe Fleischaker, of Tustin looks on as Madison Smith of Mission Viejo and her son Jackson, 5, stand on a hiking trail near where a mountain lion stalked them at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. Fleischaker helped ward the animal off with a large stick he was carrying. EUGENE GARCIA,, EUGENE GARCIA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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TRABUCO CANYON – The mountain lion was crouching, eyes locked on a 5-year-old boy, when hiker Joe Fleischaker came down Borrego Trail in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park on Sunday evening.

Fleischaker stood in front of the child – about 5 feet from the hissing mountain lion, which was baring its teeth.

Madison Smith of Mission Viejo and her children, Jackson, 5, and Lucy, 7, had been on the trail about 10 minutes when Smith heard rustling in the bushes. Lucy saw the 1-year-old, 60-pound mountain lion and yelled out, “Kitty!” Smith said. They were about a quarter mile into the trail.

“The next thing I know, a mountain lion jumps out onto the trail,” Smith said. “I started getting panicked. It was so scary.”

Fleischaker swung a thick stick in the air and yelled to scare the animal. The mountain lion backed up far enough for Smith and the kids to move away and call for help.

“I went into protection mode, literally,” Fleischaker said.

Mountain bikers and hikers leaving the trail came upon the group, and they walked out together, about 20 strong, Smith said.

“I’m just glad he didn’t attack me,” said Fleischaker, a Tustin resident who often hikes in Oregon and Palm Springs. He said the mountain lion was about the size of a Rottweiler. “The stick would not have done any damage, but it’s the only weapon I had.”

About an hour later, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife game warden found the aggressive mountain lion crouching in a grove of bushes a few feet from the trail, and shot and killed it, state wildlife officials said.

The animal was shot because it showed no fear of the officers, Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan said.

It’s “very seldom” the department shoots an animal because it is a threat to public safety, said Dan Sforza, an assistant chief with Fish and Wildlife, during a news conference Tuesday morning.

Sforza described mountain lions as secretive animals reluctant to approach people. “If you see a mountain lion, you should consider yourself lucky,” he said.

A Fish and Wildlife lab in San Bernardino will examine the mountain lion for diseases that may have caused it to be more aggressive, said UC Davis Wildlife Health Center Associate Veterinarian Winston Vickers. The results are expected to take about two weeks.

Mountain lion attacks happen yearly in North America, said Vickers, the lead veterinarian on the Southern California Puma Project, which tracks the behaviors and habitats of mountain lions. Deaths are more rare.

The last time a mountain lion killed a person in California was in January 2004, when 35-year-old Mark Reynolds was attacked by a 122-pound mountain lion, also in Whiting Ranch. Mission Viejo resident Anne Hjelle was mauled by the same lion hours later and survived.

Foothill Ranch resident Timothy Bottorff has been mountain biking in Whiting Ranch for 14 years but has never seen a mountain lion. He said hearing of animal sightings doesn’t make him less likely to ride the trails.

“These things don’t happen very often,” Bottorff said of Sunday’s encounter. “I feel sad they had to (kill the mountain lion).”

Nargiza Kalanov, who took her daughter Eva Sultano, 3, on a walk Tuesday morning on the trail, said she has spotted a mountain lion once, during a summer hike, but that it didn’t come near her. Kalanov said she often sees coyotes while hiking in the area.

Smith said she’s not planning to hike in the park again.

“It was such a terrifying experience. I don’t want to put myself or my kids in danger like that again,” Smith said. “I don’t think it’s worth bringing little ones around because they are prey.”

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